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Friday, January 01, 2010

The Maine Red Claws celebrated the New Year with a 94-86 victory over the visiting Erie BayHawks, their second win in as many days. A sellout crowd of 3,045, Maine’s seventh consecutive full house, packed the Portland Expo despite the snow.

The Red Claws methodically built up a 17-point halftime advantage with strong defense as they limited Erie to a 37% field goal percentage and 34 points in the first half. Erie struggled at the line with a 45% free throw percentage for the first two quarters.

The BayHawks were able to make a game of it in the fourth cutting the Red Claw lead to four with 10:32 to play, after a 10-0 run that overlapped the third and fourth quarters. Most of the run occurred with Red Claw big man Alexis Ajinca on the bench, and as soon as he reentered the game Maine slowly pulled away.

Ajinca dominated the paint all game long and finished with a double-double scoring 19 points, rebounding 14, and blocking 5 shots. Mario West finished with 18 while Anthony Terrell had 15. Ivan Harris had a game high 20 for the BayHawks.

The Red Claws are next in action at the NBA D-League showcase in Boise, Idaho against the Los Angeles D-Fenders. Erie faces off against the Springfield Armor tomorrow in Massachusetts. Maine is now 10-3 on the year and the Bayhawks 4-10.